Finkel: That fits well with what I was thinking under point #7. In their efforts to polish up the WT image, they put every effort into concealing any problems with their "spiritual paradise". So when a child is molested, they don't want to bring the attention of 'worldly' authorities to investigate and possibly prosecute one of their 'brothers'. Instead, they tell the victim, "shhhh. Jehovah will fix this in his due time." This creates an environment where the pedophile is protected. As it stands, they admit that their JCs won't take an accusation seriously until there are multiple victims in order to supply 2 witnesses. Pedophilia is a crime. Setting up that kind of an environment to protect them is also a terrible crime.
What Watchtower Got Wrong with Their Child Molestation Policy
by Billy the Ex-Bethelite 31 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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Robert222
Thanks Billy for responding to our comments, I am learning a lot - my father and uncle were elders, so I understand a little of the procedures, just can't believe how they brush off certain activities as being nothing, just uncleanness, as if the perpetrator and victim were both adults..but even if the victim were an adult, assault is a crime. And I can never understand how the GB are above the law, so is murder okay too? Is that judicial committee matter? just amazing..
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PaintedToeNail
bump
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Heaven
Heaven: That is simply too logical. WT policy is to hide such dirty secrets if they decide the molestor is 'repentant'. Since none of the sheeple know about this terrible danger, they are expected to love-bomb and trust everyone that steps in the Kingdumb Haul.
Alas Billy, this is true. I am simply too logical to be a JW.
Instead, they tell the victim, "shhhh. Jehovah will fix this in his due time." This creates an environment where the pedophile is protected.
Waiting on Jehovah fixes nothing. Doing nothing about a problem only makes it worse. Whether Botchtower deliberately did this or not, they have created a Pedophile Paradise. There is a high rate of re-offence with pedophiles. Instead of rectifying what they've done, they are sticking their heads in the sand and turning a blind eye. They should be ashamed. This is why I believe it is up to the law makers to take action to remove the destructive actions/natures of these types of groups.
"Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity." -- Lord Acton
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Retrovirus
I'd like to add to Nugget's point about repentance. Like many other religions, the WT is arrogantly confident that their elders can diagnose "genuine repentance" and that this would prevent re-offending. There seems to have been a small measure of watchfulness that the stepdaughter was not bothered again. . . but for CC to have been molested over 2 years, shows that the offender was allowed access to other children - completely unsupervised.
They deserve to lose much more than $28 million.
Retro
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perfect1
Billy I like your style.
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sir82
Like many other religions, the WT is arrogantly confident that their elders can diagnose "genuine repentance" and that this would prevent re-offending.
Well, see, that's just the thing. The WTS views its elders as a bunch of incompetent rubes who need to wear velcro shoes because they don't have the smarts to tie laces.
The mind-numbing elders' schools held every few years, and the mind-numbing CO meetings every 6 months, where they repeat the JW "holy mantra" of "attend all the meetings, go out in service more, and read our literature more" in the simplest and dullest of terms, is evidence that they don't thin the elders are capable of much more than reading from a script.
Hmmm, maybe I need to re-think my position - maybe the GB is "evil" (as opposed to "ignorant") after all.
They have to know that the elders are completely unequipped to judge "true repentance", and yet they rely on them to make that call, thereby quite often "releasing" child molesters to do their deeds again, particularly in non-reporting states.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Thanks for the comments and resurrecting this thread. It was a great exercise for me, since my parents found out from someone else about the Conti case and asked me about it a few weeks ago. Although they are both very much in, and I treat their beliefs respectfully, we easily agreed that the WT policy needs to change.
I forgot to finish fleshing-out my list, so I'll continue with the thoughts...
5) Lack of Education. Anyone that watches modern crime dramas or follows the news, will realize the importance of forensic evidence in solving criminal cases. Yet, Watchtower ignores the value of hard physical evidence in favor of verbal testimony. In our modern era, there is no reason that WT elders would not boldly call the police FIRST when the hear of a child molestation incident. Law enforcement, medical technicians, and psychologists can skillfully determine the events of a case far better than a judicial committee. WT needs to recognize their inability to match these modern tools of justice.
One of the things I shared with my parents is that one of my summer courses completely sold me on forensics, something JWs never, ever discuss. As an elder, all I could do was go by what people were saying, and then it was guesswork to figure who was telling the truth. But in a couple labs for this class, we did DNA experiments with samples so small that I couldn't see them with the naked eye. Yet we performed the analysis, and holy smokes, it was clear as day which samples matched. Other relatives are in the medical field and we all understand the importance of medical tests and examinations, rather than just talking about how somebody feels. My mom enjoys the shows about medical research and solving real-life crimes, so she readily agreed that if she or any of us was ever attacked, we wouldn't go to the elders and wait for them to hear back from Bethel. It would be a call to the police on the way to the hospital! Why can't WT acknowledge that regardless of who committed the crime, a victim should be directed to the police and the hospital FIRST, so that there is a better chance of solving a crime.
6) Demonizing "the World".
This ties in with WT failure to recognize the ability and authority of the police. WT wants to make everyone not a JW play the role of an enemy, deserving of destruction at armageddon very soon now. It's certainly true that police and the court system have corruption problems and make mistakes, but your chances are much better with the secular system than with a JW judicial committee hidden away in a secret meeting in a windowless room. The WT won a lot of rights and freedoms from court systems around the world, yet they turn around and show disgust and contempt for the same system? Sadly, JWs too easily trust untrustworthy JWs and prevent them from trusting good 'worldly' people.
7) Worshipping and Protecting an "Organization" instead of Worshipping God and Protecting Children.
Last, but by no means least on this list. JWs used to avoid the label of being an "organization", a "religion", a "church", or having 'clergy.' That's all changed. Jaracz was a 100% organization man and felt that 'organization' was more important than any person or teaching. It became far more important to protect the reputation of the organization through secrecy than to turn a 'rank and file' JW over for police investigation. It was more important to make the rest of the congregation believe that they were in a 'spiritual paradise' filled with completely trustworthy brothers and sisters, than to admit that there was a person in the KH that was a danger to the safety of children. Since WT put so much effort into protecting their organization rather than protecting children and advocating truth and safety, they've made the whole situation even worse. One of the things that could be learned from the Bible is that imperfect human organizations are NOT trustworthy and are not to be worshipped. The consequences should be clear to WT and JWs by now, but it's not. JWs have set up WT Corporation as their own lifeless idol that will supposedly provide them with salvation. That's not going to work.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
I sent this to Mr. Stewart with some edits to make it more current and comments WRT what has been covered in the RC. I sent it a couple days ago... I wish I would have sent it a couple of weeks ago.